PRESI 63, artist studio shoot — Portrait photography
Portrait photography in the studio: artist portraits of the rapper PRESI 63. An artist shoot in the studio against a cyclorama, with a pale blue Mercedes coupé…
An artist shoot in the studio against a cyclorama, with a pale blue Mercedes coupé as the only prop. The artist sits on the floor in white in front of the car and everything else is cleared away: no background, no street, no context beyond the color of the paint. Bringing a car into a studio is a lot of work but it buys total control over light and reflections — which is what you need if the paintwork and the clothing are to hold the same brightness.
The car stands across the frame, the artist sits on the floor in white in front of it, the pale blue paintwork behind him. Two brightnesses, one color — nothing more happens in this picture, and that is exactly why it works.
A car in the studio is above all a reflection problem. Paint reflects a light source as a surface rather than as a point, and what it reflects is the room: ceiling height, walls, cyclorama. Shooting this way is less about aiming the lamps than about what is meant to be seen in them.
That an older model stands in the frame rather than a current one is part of the statement. A car with a build year carries an origin a new one does not — in rap that has always been a subject in itself.
- Rapper
- PRESI 63
